Scriptiegegevens

Recently, the Dutch media have been raising questions about the permissibility of the violations of the privacy of citizens by the state. According to the Dutch government these violations are being carried out to safeguard the national security of the Netherlands. The main question of this thesis is based on this debate in the media: ‘Can the violations of the privacy of citizens by the state be justified on behalf of
national security?’ In the political theory literature not a lot of research has been done on this topic. This thesis will, therefore, make a start and hopefully pave the way for further research. In this thesis an explanation will be given for national security and a new definition is given for privacy. To answer the main question the theories of John Rawls, a liberal, and Michael Walzer, a communitarian, are studied and analysed. Both Rawls and Walzer conclude that privacy and national security are of great importance for a society. Privacy ensures that people are free and equal. National security, on the other hand, also ensures that people are free and safe. But national security should not be an end in itself, but a means of protecting the most important values of a society, including privacy. So before sacrificing privacy for national security, the state has to make a careful assessment and decide if there is a significant threat to national
security and only then should they consider the extent to which the violation of the privacy of its citizens can be justified.